Hemp seed oil comprises 35% of the total seed
weight. This oil has the lowest amount of
saturated fatty acids at 8%, and the highest amount
of the polyunsaturated essential fatty acids at
80%, total oil volume. Flax seed oil comes in
second at 72% combined total essential fatty acids.

Linoleic acid (LA) and linolenic acid (LNA) cannot be
made by the human body and must be obtained through the
diet, so they are called essential fatty acids
(EFA). LA and LNA are the most important fatty acids in
human nutrition and health. They are involved in
producing life energy from food and the movement of that
energy throughout the body. EFAs govern growth,
vitality and state of mind. Still, much is unknown
about their functioning in the body.

Fat is the second most abundant substance in the human
body (water is first). The exact percentage varies with
diet, exercise, genetic disposition, age and gender. The
average is 15% to 22% of body weight as fat. The average
adult American eats 135 lbs. of fat each year. That works
out to over 50% of all calories consumed. The percentage
and types of fats eaten are 34% saturated, 40%
monounsaturated and 15% polyunsaturated fatty acids (fats
are really fatty acids). Many U.S. health organizations
recommend fat consumption be reduced to 30% of calories
in the diet, with the fats divided equally between
saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty
acids. Some private researchers believe this is still to
much fat in the diet and it will not help to reduce the
incidence of fatty degeneration and cardiovascular
disease (CVD).

Ideally, one third of the fat consumed should be EFAs. At
least 10% of daily calories should be LA and at least 2%
LNA. The optimal ratio of LA to LNA in the diet is between
2 to 1 and 5 to 1. The 2 to 1 ratio of LA to LNA is more
advantageous in stemming fatty degeneration diseases. Flax
seed oil is 58% LNA, possibly making it the best seed oil
to combat degenerative disease, but it contains only 14%
LA. Hemp seed oil is 55% LA and 25% LNA, or 2.2 times more
LA than LNA, making it the best seed oil for optimal health
and prevention of fatty degeneration.

The distinction between saturated and unsaturated fatty acids
makes a world of difference to the body. Both are made up of
carbon atoms connected to each other in chains with a
CH3 methyl group at one end. That is
the fat portion. The other end of the chain is finished with
a COOH carboxylic group. That is the acid portion. And
there the similarity between saturated and unsaturated fatty
acids ends.

Saturated fatty acids (SFA) are not essential to the human
diet. The body can make them from proteins or
carbohydrates. Saturated fatty acids are straight line
molecules consisting of carbon atoms connected to each other
in single bond chains with a hydrogen atom at every bonding
site on the carbon chain. Since all available bonding points
on the carbon atoms are filled the chain is said to be
saturated.

LA, LNA and the highly unsaturated fatty
acids the body makes from them, are
necessary in the most active energy
and electron exchanging and oxygen
requiring tissues; especially the
brain, retina, inner ear, adrenal
and testicular tissues. They carry
the high energy required by the most
active tissues, and ensure very high
oxygen availability to them. Life
force travels through the body via
the essential fatty acids and their
derivatives.

The body burns SFAs up to 14 carbons long to produce energy
much like we burn hydrocarbon fuels to power
automobiles. Only the body's biochemical engines burn
clean, leaving no "smog" as long as the body is in good
health. Enzymes (globular proteins) within the cell
break SFAs into successive 2-carbon fragments (acetates)
starting from the acid end. The acetates are then burned
(oxidized) in the cell's energy furnace, the
mitochondria. The chemical energy produced is stored in
ATP (adenosine triphosphate) molecules and can be released
to fuel chemical reactions whenever the cell needs it. The
remaining energy dissipates as heat and that keeps the body
warm. (The first law of thermodynamics says energy cannot
be created nor destroyed, but can change forms. Heat
radiation is a form of kinetic energy; the bonding energy
that holds chemical compounds together is called chemical
energy. Heat can make or break chemical bonds, and
chemical reactions can absorb or release heat.)

SFAs are sticky. The longer the chain the more readily
the fatty portions tend to dissolve into each other. SFAs
longer than ten carbons are solid at body
temperature. Saturated fatty acid chains with 16 or more
carbons can interfere with normal metabolic functions and
clog arteries when consumed in excess. They are found in
animal fats; primarily in beef, lamb and pork; and in
coconut and palm kernel oil.

Unsaturated fatty acids are also made up of carbon atoms
connected to each other like the saturated fatty acids,
but at certain places along the chain two carbon atoms
are connected by double bonds. To accomplish this two
hydrogen atoms must be removed, one from each of the two
carbon atoms forming the double bond. Because hydrogen
atoms are removed to make the double bond between carbon
atoms the fatty acid chain is said to be unsaturated.

These molecular diagrams illustrate the structural
differences between saturated fats and the essential
dietary oils. The bent shape of the essential fatty
acids keeps them from dissolving into each
other. They are slippery and will not clog arteries
like the sticky straight shaped saturated fats and
the trans-fatty acids found in cooking oils and
shortenings that are made by subjecting
polyunsaturated oils like LA and LNA to high
temperatures during the refining process.

LA and LNA possess a slightly negative charge and have
a tendency to form very thin surface layers. This
property is called surface activity, and it provides
the power to carry substances like toxins to the
surface of the skin, intestinal tract, kidneys and
lungs where they can be removed. Their very
sensitivity causes them to break down rapidly into
toxic compounds when refined with high heat.

Plants have enzymes capable of inserting these double
bonds starting at the third carbon atom. Human enzymes
can make double bonds starting at the ninth carbon atom
only. If the fatty acid has just one double bond it is
called a monounsaturated fatty acid. Oleic acid (named
after olive oil) has one double bond between the ninth
and tenth carbons. Human enzymes make oleic acid from
stearic acid (an 18-carbon SFA found in beef, lamb and
pork) in an attempt to keep body fats from solidifying.

If the fatty acid has more than one double bonded carbon
pair it is polyunsaturated. Linoleic acid has two
unsaturated pairs in its 18-carbon chain. Linolenic acid
has three pairs in its 18-carbon chain. Naturally
unsaturated fatty acids always have their double bonds
three carbon atoms apart.

These unsaturated bonds cause the normally straight line
shape of the carbon chain to bend at the double bonded
pair because nature always removes the hydrogen atoms from
the same side of the fatty acid molecule. This greatly
changes the fatty acid's physical and chemical
characteristics. Biochemists call this cis-
configuration.

The bent structure keeps the EFAs from dissolving into each
other. They are slippery, not sticky like the SFAs, and
they are liquid at body temperature. EFAs possess a
slightly negative charge and have a tendency to form very
thin surface layers. This property is called surface
activity, and it provides the power to carry substances
like toxins to the surface of the skin, intestinal tract,
kidneys and lungs where they can be removed. EFA surface
activity also helps disperse materials which react with
or dissolve into the EFAs. Essential cis- unsaturated fatty
acids do not clog arteries like SFAs.

The cis- configuration allows de-localized electron clouds
(pi-electrons) to form in the bend produced on the
chain. The resulting electrostatic force enables the EFAs
to capture oxygen molecules and hold proteins within cell
membranes. And because of the pi-electron clouds in the
cis- bonds, EFAs are able to form phase boundary electrical
potentials between the water inside and outside the cells,
and the oils within the cell membranes. Like static
electricity in a capacitor these charges can produce
measurable bio-electric currents important to nerve, muscle,
heart and membrane functions. EFAs are extremely important
to the body's overall energy exchange potential -- the
flow of lifeforce.

LA and LNA are involved in transferring oxygen from the air
in the lungs to every cell in the body. They play a part
in holding oxygen in the cell membrane. There it acts as a
barrier to invading viruses and bacteria, neither of which
thrive in the presence of oxygen. Oxidation is the single
most important living process in the body.

Linoleic acid and linolenic acid are precursors to the
prostaglandins, a short-lived hormone-like family of
substances that regulate many functions in all tissues. About
thirty prostaglandins have been identified. They are divided
into three series. LA is the starting material for series 1
and 2; series 3 is derived from LNA.

Prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) is the best known in series 1. Some
of the series 2 prostaglandins have the opposite effect of
PGE1, and the series 3 prostaglandins have properties similar
to series 1. PGE1 helps prevent heart attacks and strokes
associated with cardiovascular disease by keeping blood
platelets from sticking together and forming clots in the
arteries. PGE1 retards cholesterol production and improves
circulation by dilating blood vessels. It controls series 2
prostaglandin production. It is involved with T cell
functions in the immune system and may well help to prevent
cancer growth by regulating the rate of cell division. PGE1
improves nerve action and gives a sense of well being.

LA, LNA and the highly unsaturated fatty acids the body makes
from them, are necessary in the most active energy and electron
exchanging and oxygen requiring tissues; especially the brain,
retina, inner ear, adrenal and testicular tissues. They carry
the high energy required by the most active tissues, and ensure
very high oxygen availability to them. Life force travels
through the body via the essential fatty acids and their
derivatives.

Over half the oil found in dark green plant leaves is Linolenic
acid (green leaves contain 1% or less oil). It is even more
concentrated in the membranes of the chloroplasts where
photosynthesis takes place. The pi-electron clouds of the
cis- double bonds in LNA absorb photon energy from sunlight
striking the plant leaves and become excited like electrons
in laser materials. The pi-electrons transform the solar
energy into chemical energy and LNA transports that energy
wherever it is needed.

LNA is about five times more reactive to light than LA. Light
increases LNA's ability to react with oxygen by a thousand
times. The unsaturated fatty acids with more cis- bonds are
extremely sensitive to light and will spoil rapidly when
exposed to it. The oils quickly become rancid and unfit to
eat. So the special nature of the EFAs that make them essential
to life -- absorption of oxygen and transformation of solar
energy -- causes them to decompose when exposed to air and
light.

When the EFAs and their highly unsaturated cousins are exposed
to sunlight, free radical chain reactions begin. A single
photon may be caught by an electron on a carbon next to the
cis- bonded pair. That excited electron leaves orbit and
crashes into another one or takes off with a hydrogen nucleus
causing a chain reaction that continues for 30,000
cycles. Bonds break along the chain. New and different
molecules are formed. Many including, ozonides and peroxides
which destroy lung tissue, hydroperoxides, polymers and
especially hydroperoxyaldehydes are toxic to the body.

Though life cannot flow without the light and oxygen
sensitive EFAs, they quickly become toxic when handled
incorrectly. Nature solves this paradox by making powerful
antioxidants and free radical scavengers that control the
oxidation rate and trap free radicals before chain reactions get
out of control. Two of the best are vitamins A and E. Nature
designed them to dissolve into her remarkable polyunsaturated
oils and shield them while they enable life energy to flow.

Plants have created the perfect container to safely store the
EFAs and protect them from light and oxygen damage. It is the
seed. And as long as we get our essential fatty acids by
eating whole seeds the lifeforce within us is charged with
vitality. Hemp seeds contain the perfect balance of the
essential fatty acids required by the human body. Hemp seed
oil is indeed the oil of life.

References:

Fats and Oils: The Complete Guide to Fats and Oils in
Health and Nutrition Udo Erasmus, Alive Books 1986.

Life and Energy: An Exploration of the Physical and
Chemical Basis of Modern Biology. Isaac Asimov, Avon Books 1962.